“Samantha Who?” Review: You Should Remember This One

It seems like the silliest premise for a show.

A woman develops amnesia and while rediscovering her life, she discovers she wasn’t a very good person.

But in the hands of sitcom veterans like Christina Applegate, Kevin Dunn and the fabulous Jean Smart, the premise is sitcom gold…

The woman is Samantha (Applegate), who has been in a coma for eight days after a hit-and-run accident. She has quirky parents (Dunn and Smart) she doesn’t remember and she lives with a boyfriend, Todd (Barry Watson), she doesn’t remember. Her best friend Andrea (Jennifer Esposito) is a boozing party girl, but Samantha doesn’t remember that either, or the fact that she was one too.

Soon, it becomes clear to Sam that she wasn’t the world’s nicest person before her coma. She hadn’t spoken to her parents in two years (and Andrea doesn’t want that to change) and she was cheating on Todd (which Andrea supports). Now, she wonders if she can use this second chance to change her life.

Minus the one misstep of Sam getting kicked out of an AA meeting (not to mention Andrea hiding the fact Sam’s an alcoholic), the script absolutely crackled. The dialogue was sharp and in the hands of such a wonderful cast, it was a true pleasure to watch (when ABC wasn’t stuffing in more commercials). I love Jean Smart as a drama queen, but her comic timing is second to none. And it’s nice to see Applegate back in such a good role.

In all honesty, though, I’m not completely sure how this show can keep this premise up; but I’m willing to stick it out for now.

At least until I remember that this show is on ABC, and I hate them…
“Samantha Who?” airs Mondays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC…